Adopt or adapt? Unpacking the role of institutional work processes in the implementation of new regulations

Abstract

Building on a longitudinal study of the implementation of a new regulation and a framework of institutional work, this article makes three contributions: first, it explains how nonpowerful regulatees, by engaging in mobilization and cultivation, can change the power balance in the field and adjust the regulation to their local setting. Second, it takes a processual view and develops a conceptual model of how the implementation process unfolds through four waves; initial impact, response, recovery, and stabilization. Third, it shows how the studied actors combine contradictory institutional logics to legitimize their practices and resolve institutional complexity. Thus, it adds new insights into how actors, by engaging in collective and discursive institutional work, can influence both the implementation process and the regulation itself.